Energy news in general

markin

michaels said:

doodling said:

Hi,

markin said:

Oil dropped from $85 in April to around $72 !   OPEC seem to be holding closer to $80
https://oilprice.com/oil-price-charts/


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British households and firms cut enough peak-time energy use to power 10m homes

"About 1.6m households and businesses received payments to help reduce the pressure on the National Grid during the winter months as part of a demand flexibility scheme run by its electricity system operator (ESO).

The energy users were called on about 22 times to reschedule their energy use to avoid peak demand hours, for example, running dishwashers or tumble dryers at night.

The energy savings from peak time were equivalent to the electricity output of the Keadby gas power plant over 4.5 hours, or three hours of generation from the Sizewell B nuclear power plant." ....

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/10/british-households-and-firms-cut-winter-electricity-use-by-enough-to-power-10m-homes

So if we had another nuclear power station we wouldn't need to worry about having to rearrange our energy use to fit when the wind blows?

Sounds like a good deal to me!

I'd rather make the small effort to use less at certain times than pay the £1500 per household needed to build an extra reactor - each to their own.

Over 30 years its only £50 a year, and they usually run 50+ years, So £30 a year.

The_Green_Hornet

Ofgem orders three energy firms to pay £8m compensation over late bills

E.ON Next, Octopus and Good Energy did not supply final bill on time to many households that had switched

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/17/ofgem-orders-three-energy-firms-to-pay-8m-compensation-over-late-bills

markin

The_Green_Hornet said:

Ofgem orders three energy firms to pay £8m compensation over late bills

E.ON Next, Octopus and Good Energy did not supply final bill on time to many households that had switched

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/17/ofgem-orders-three-energy-firms-to-pay-8m-compensation-over-late-bills

Eon average is £58 ,Good £51, Octopus £39, So that must mean octopus are good at doing the compensation payments?

superkoopauk

markin said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Ofgem orders three energy firms to pay £8m compensation over late bills

E.ON Next, Octopus and Good Energy did not supply final bill on time to many households that had switched

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/17/ofgem-orders-three-energy-firms-to-pay-8m-compensation-over-late-bills

Eon average is £58 ,Good £51, Octopus £39, So that must mean octopus are good at doing the compensation payments?

If they were good then they wouldn't of been fined!  Expect better from Octopus.  It is odd through I would of expected the same average as payments are the same across the board.

TheElectricCow

superkoopauk said:

markin said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Ofgem orders three energy firms to pay £8m compensation over late bills

E.ON Next, Octopus and Good Energy did not supply final bill on time to many households that had switched

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/17/ofgem-orders-three-energy-firms-to-pay-8m-compensation-over-late-bills

Eon average is £58 ,Good £51, Octopus £39, So that must mean octopus are good at doing the compensation payments?

If they were good then they wouldn't of been fined!  Expect better from Octopus.  It is odd through I would of expected the same average as payments are the same across the board.

The supplier has to pay extra compensation if they fail to pay the original compensation on time. So if Eon are much slower than the others to credit this money, they'd be more often paying out additional money on top of what a customer would be owed in the first place. Octopus are, presumably, making more compensation payments when they should be, so aren't having to pay out more on top for delays.

The_Green_Hornet

Ovo and Good Energy ordered to pay £4m compensation after overcharging

About 18,000 households could receive refunds of up to £181 on electricity and gas bills

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/may/18/ovo-good-energy-compensation-overcharging-ofgem-electricity-gas-bills

bristolleedsfan

The_Green_Hornet said:

Ovo and Good Energy ordered to pay £4m compensation after overcharging

About 18,000 households could receive refunds of up to £181 on electricity and gas bills

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/may/18/ovo-good-energy-compensation-overcharging-ofgem-electricity-gas-bills

Everybody should double check statements, there have been instances of customers from apparent forum favourite energy supplier discovering energy price guarantee discount has not been automatically applied to flexible tariff, obviously statements have been posted elsewhere displaying that fact

michaels

[Quoted posts removed by Forum Team]

WE are still using lots of gas for electricity generation and would need to use even more if the electricity transmission lines were down - afaik we still don't have much gas storage.

MattMattMattUK

michaels said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Dolor said:

TheElectricCow said:

markin said:

Russia may have put sleeper explosives on Britain's offshore wind farms to knock out power in a conflict, ex-head of Royal Navy warns         

I’m sure there’s plenty of awful things that any hostile country “may” do that has the potential to cause huge disruption, but from the perspective of the average UK domestic energy consumer I don’t think the possibility of underwater explosives planted on our wind turbines should be any more of a concern than any other potential assault on the country’s infrastructure at this time.

Such a deliberate act of war directly against the UK is probably not in anyone’s best interests, so the scenario of Russia blowing up our offshore wind turbines is probably not going to be something your typical household needs to worry about preparing for at this stage.

You are not thinking strategically. We live in an inter-connected World. No one is talking about blowing up a few offshore wind turbines: that said, it would be deemed to be an Act of War if it happened in UK waters.

The big concern is damage to the main inter-connectors between the UK mainland; Ireland and mainland Europe. History has shown that when these go out-of-service a spike in energy prices tends to follow. The other non energy-related concern is damage to our internet links which I suspect a lot of people would notice. Should any of these happen, we could see a return to high energy prices.

I agree, the interconnectors, gas pipelines to Norway and general telecoms connections are far better targets than a few wind turbines. There are fallback options for the internet but we would notice a huge slowdown on internationally hosted content, gas would not be much of concern at the moment, if they were going to target the supplies doing so during a cold spell when supplies are already stretched would be the most opportune time. Of course it would also become an article five situation so it would be a serious escalation by Russia and potentially one that even China might see as a step too far. 

WE are still using lots of gas for electricity generation and would need to use even more if the electricity transmission lines were down - afaik we still don't have much gas storage.

In terms of pure storage around nine days at maximum, but usually closer to seven, however it can only supply 10% of peak supply when at maximum capacity and that supply rate drops as the storage empties. We produce around 35-40% from domestic production depending on season and around 11% from LNG and there are at any time tankers on station being unloaded which also represents a level of storage. 

In a worse case scenario around 55% of daily usage comes from Norway and another 20% by pipelines from the Netherlands and Belgium, so depending on how many of them were lost would depend how much of a shortfall we had. If we lost the Britpipe (from Norway) we would have to implement immediate power rationing to reduce demand for both gas and electricity, probably 8-12 hour rolling power cuts for all domestic users and potentially a complete shutdown of industrial usage. On that basis we could just about get through the winter and restrictions might ease if we had a mild winter or people actually reduced usage to essential usage only when asked. 

michaels

MattMattMattUK said:

michaels said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Dolor said:

TheElectricCow said:

markin said:

Russia may have put sleeper explosives on Britain's offshore wind farms to knock out power in a conflict, ex-head of Royal Navy warns         

I’m sure there’s plenty of awful things that any hostile country “may” do that has the potential to cause huge disruption, but from the perspective of the average UK domestic energy consumer I don’t think the possibility of underwater explosives planted on our wind turbines should be any more of a concern than any other potential assault on the country’s infrastructure at this time.

Such a deliberate act of war directly against the UK is probably not in anyone’s best interests, so the scenario of Russia blowing up our offshore wind turbines is probably not going to be something your typical household needs to worry about preparing for at this stage.

You are not thinking strategically. We live in an inter-connected World. No one is talking about blowing up a few offshore wind turbines: that said, it would be deemed to be an Act of War if it happened in UK waters.

The big concern is damage to the main inter-connectors between the UK mainland; Ireland and mainland Europe. History has shown that when these go out-of-service a spike in energy prices tends to follow. The other non energy-related concern is damage to our internet links which I suspect a lot of people would notice. Should any of these happen, we could see a return to high energy prices.

I agree, the interconnectors, gas pipelines to Norway and general telecoms connections are far better targets than a few wind turbines. There are fallback options for the internet but we would notice a huge slowdown on internationally hosted content, gas would not be much of concern at the moment, if they were going to target the supplies doing so during a cold spell when supplies are already stretched would be the most opportune time. Of course it would also become an article five situation so it would be a serious escalation by Russia and potentially one that even China might see as a step too far. 

WE are still using lots of gas for electricity generation and would need to use even more if the electricity transmission lines were down - afaik we still don't have much gas storage.

In terms of pure storage around nine days at maximum, but usually closer to seven, however it can only supply 10% of peak supply when at maximum capacity and that supply rate drops as the storage empties. We produce around 35-40% from domestic production depending on season and around 11% from LNG and there are at any time tankers on station being unloaded which also represents a level of storage. 

In a worse case scenario around 55% of daily usage comes from Norway and another 20% by pipelines from the Netherlands and Belgium, so depending on how many of them were lost would depend how much of a shortfall we had. If we lost the Britpipe (from Norway) we would have to implement immediate power rationing to reduce demand for both gas and electricity, probably 8-12 hour rolling power cuts for all domestic users and potentially a complete shutdown of industrial usage. On that basis we could just about get through the winter and restrictions might ease if we had a mild winter or people actually reduced usage to essential usage only when asked. 

Scary to be that dependent on a single source - what if it were to fail through accident?